going on an average retreat

I went on a silent retreat this past week at the nearby Benedictine Abbey of St. Walburga and it was good but also kinda normal/average.

I've been there many times over the past ten years, and I have short notes from all my different visits (Day 2, slept like crap, mind racing about, etc).

What I noticed this time was that it felt like I had less of an entry and exit shock. 

I think because I'm less interested in having ecstatic experiences on retreat only to have it all dissolve when re-entering "real life.” (This can be a real trap—endlessly pursuing the next retreat/program/workshop high. And while our culture seems to always be seeking excitement and ecstasy, actually the word “ecstatic” literally means standing outside yourself while “enstatic” or “enstasy” means collected within yourself.)

And I think there was less of an entry or exit shock because I've intentionally worked to bring the stable energy of the Abbey into my daily life at home. 

So I was more my regular, old self there and I wasn't looking for high intensity or some mystical moment.

I read. I wrote. I was bored. I laughed at myself. I went for walks and it was cold and cloudy and beautiful. I chanted the divine hours with the sisters and saw how they were their regular selves, too. I took one blurry photo from my desk and sent it to my son (see above).

And it was good, and coming home was good, too. 

What do you think? Do you like going on retreats or doing workshops? How do you metabolize these experiences?

With care,
Brianna